


Nine Lives

by GilliganGoodfellow



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Dark, Hurt No Comfort, Loyalty, M/M, Torture, What is this canon compliance of which you speak, Witcher Whump Week (The Witcher)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:09:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27139160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GilliganGoodfellow/pseuds/GilliganGoodfellow
Summary: Hoodwink rests their finger tip on the point of the blade. “Maybe we should jog your memory, Kingslayer?”Bring your worst, Letho thinks.So they do.The door opens again.Gaetan.
Relationships: Gaetan/Letho z Gulety | Letho of Gulet
Comments: 17
Kudos: 41
Collections: Witcher Whump Week 2020





	Nine Lives

Letho is not afraid.

He can see the heating branding irons. The knives. The pliers. The rack in the corner.

Let them come. Letho long ago made pain a friend, an ally. Pain means he’s alive.

Letho is not afraid. 

They’re looking for Geralt’s kid. And Letho won’t betray her.

He tests the chains binding him to the wall. Strong. It’s not often that Letho encounters restraints that will actually hold him. Crippled Kate’s had to order in special. Maybe they gave the bastards advice. 

Letho laughs, amusing himself with the thought. 

He hears keys in the door, a brush of air against his naked legs as the door swings open and the hooded figure steps in, looking Letho up and down. 

“Am I entertaining ‘nuff for you?” Letho drawls. “I’d turn and give you a view of the behind, if you let the chains off.”

The hooded figure turns their back on Letho, picking up one of the knives. 

“Tell us where the girl is.”

“What girl, Hoodwink?”

Hoodwink...Letho decrees the hooded figure's name to be Hoodwink. Letho likes showing off how well read he is. He likes fucking with people’s expectations of him.

Hoodwink rests their finger tip on the point of the blade. “Maybe we should jog your memory, Kingslayer?”

 _Bring your worst_ , Letho thinks. 

So they do. 

The door opens again. 

_Gaetan._

And Letho is afraid. 

Clearly weakened by potions, the cat school witcher bites, hisses and spits as they chain him to the opposite wall, his frantic actions calming when he makes eye contact with Letho. Everything stills except his laboured breathing, and the movement of blood in his blackened veins. 

_What potion did they give him?_

Hoodwink looks back at Letho. “I know you helped the White Wolf to smuggle the girl to her hiding place. Tell me where she is? Spare your friend this pain.”

Gaetan shakes his head, and Letho is afraid. 

Letho shakes his head.

“Very well.” 

Hoodwink starts with the branding iron, and Gaetan can only barely hold back his screams as the scars are added to his stomach, chest and shoulder. 

The sound of searing flesh cuts at Letho’s ears. 

“Where is the girl?”

Letho growls, and they move on to the pliers, ripping the nails from each finger on Gaetan’s right hand, and Letho can smell the blood.

He can taste the charred, burned flesh on the air now.

The left hand is next. And all Letho can do is watch. 

All Gaetan can do is bite back screams as they move on to the knives, cutting over the abused brands and then around them. Cutting new lines down his arms and sides.

Letho’s can feel his pulse in his entire body. He can _feel_ Gaetan’s pain. 

Hoodwink steps back, placing the blood stained blades back on the table. 

“The rack next, but...a rest first. Give you a chance to remember where the girl is.”

The door closes behind the hooded bastard and Letho fights the restraints. It’s not often that Letho encounters restraints that will actually hold him. He doubts these fuckers have managed. 

Gaetan is limp, unconscious? 

Letho cries out, punching at the wall behind him. The wall he is still bound to. 

“Letho.” The voice is a whisper and the Viper shakes his head.

Letho pulls on the restraints. 

“Letho, _Minne_.” Gaetan’s voice is a murmur, the combination of pain, potions and shock playing a clear havoc with him. “I’ll survive.”

And it’s true. Everyone knows that cats have nine lives. They can survive untold hardships. They say the only way to kill a cat is to take out the brain, cut off the head or put an arrow in the eye. 

Gaetan will survive whatever torture these bastards throw at him. 

“And whatever they do to us. They’ll do ten times worse to Ciri. And she’s just a kid, Letho.”

Letho nods.

“Like my sister.”

Letho looks down. 

“I know you had a sister too.”

Brown hair, brown eyes, smiling as she hands her older brother a flower from the garden. 

“Don’t betray that girl, _Minne_. Not for me.”

Letho growls, and nods. 

He can hear footsteps, they’re coming back. 

Gaetan smiles. “We’re witchers. We protect that little girl from the monsters.”

Letho doesn't look away.

The door opens. Letho fights the restraints. And Gaetan closes his eyes. 

The cat will survive whatever the bastards throw at him. 

The question is...will Letho?


End file.
